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Researchers Have Developed A Battery-Free Mobile Phone (hothardware.com)
An anonymous reader quotes HotHardware:
Researchers from the University of Washington are looking to make batteries a thing of the past when it comes to mobile phones. The team has developed a phone that uses "almost zero power" according to associate professor Shyam Gollakota, who co-authored a paper which detailed the breakthrough... The researchers designed the phone to harvest microwatts of power from RF signals transmitted from a base station that is 31 feet away. Additional power is harnessed via ambient light through the use of miniature photodiodes that are about the size of a grain of rice. While in use, the phone consumes about 3.5 microwatts of power and is capable of communicating with a custom base station that is up to 50 feet away to send and receive calls... The phone ditches the traditional analog-to-digital converter, which turns your voice into data, in favor of a system that uses the vibrations from a microphone or speaker to perform the same task. An antenna then converts that motion into radio signals in such a way that very little power is consumed.
There's two drawbacks. First, modern smartphones "need a lot more than a 3.5-microwatt power budget for blazing fast processor, copious amounts of RAM and internal storage, and power-hungry displays." And more importantly, "you have to press a button to switch between transmissions and listening modes with the phone."
There's two drawbacks. First, modern smartphones "need a lot more than a 3.5-microwatt power budget for blazing fast processor, copious amounts of RAM and internal storage, and power-hungry displays." And more importantly, "you have to press a button to switch between transmissions and listening modes with the phone."
You re-invented a walkie-talkie.
I invented one also. You wear this big orange toupee, and rub the phone against it generate static electricity for power. It comes with a red cap to store the phone under. It's a big seller in the Rust Belt for some reason.
Table-ized A.I.
Death to CNN! Long live the new flesh!
They've actually just advanced and optimised a kids' radio set?
This is not a phone. Its an ambient RF powered walkie-talkie, the likes of which have existed for 15+ years at least.
This isnt even a good version, needing its own POWERED RF transmitter with a max range of 10 metres. If you have power 10M away then why not use it to charge a battery and have a device that is actually useful?
So this is... basically an elaborate foxhole radio with a very short range transmitter added?
Don't think it'll have much market application unless it's something tacked on to modern phones as an emergency call feature.
One is like a normal run of the mill guy who's really no different from a straight guy except that he likes to have gaybuttsex.
The other type is an over the top flaming homo that you can spot a mile away.
Is there some genetic difference between these two types of faggots, or is the flamer just exhibiting behavior he's learned?
Discuss.
Ever heard of Theremin's spying device ?
There are more than two major problems. The requirement of a nearby base station (or other RF source) is a significant drawback.
However the research is interesting - and people need to remember this is intended as rather fundamental research, not something that's ready for commercialization. And the "walkie talkie" comments are really missing the mark, since the person you're talking doesn't have to be local.
#DeleteChrome
You all know that nothing, absolutely nothing will ever come of this. It is just another one of Slashdot's Astounding Filler Articles! . Please Slashdot. Even a return to Jon Katz and Columbine would be an improvement. Or kittens. How about pictures of kittens, lots of kittens?
Welcome to 1945. Glad to know you're "invented" something amazing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Rovio will be coming out with one soon just for this device: Anemic Birds.
Have gnu, will travel.
Apple invented battery-free iPhone
Put the mic and a speaker on that base station that's 31 feet away and just shout at it. Zero power!
This sounds more like a cordless phone than a mobile, unless you never move more than a few dozen feet.
A cordless phone that didn't need to be put on a charger would be a pretty good convenience. Of course who the hell has a landline anymore these days.
So, in different words, they have built a very-low-powered analog transmitter and receiver... something people have been doing for about half a century.
Congratulations on the completion of a high school science project! I'm afraid it's still just an also-ran, however.
If you could make it small enough, it might work as a standalone Communications Badge.
theres another phone that uses no power and converts vibrations from your voice into transmittable data: it's called a string and two cups...
That seems really useful!
This is not a phone. It's a solar powered walkie talkie. You're limited in range, it's not cellular, it's not a phone. I can invent a mobile phone that uses no power using two soup cans and a string to communicate with a base station (Amazon Echo).
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Why not just get a solar powered walkie talkie and forget it?
This is not a full-duplex nor is it a cell phone communicating in the 2.4Ghz band to a cell tower 1-10 miles away.
News flash, you can build something far superior to this today, get a Nokia brick phone and a solar panel case. Boom! Done! No base station required, not PTT (Push to Talk) button required. It will have a battery but never need traditional charging.
How is this high-tech geek news?
Anyone?
there are still people on this earth that just us a regular cellphone. I would buy one if improved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
They mention that they are using backscatter techniques not that new but in a very nice package and interesting execution for a device.
another post here referenced a "crystal radio receiver" as a parallel. it's a good analogy actually. and it has massive shortcomings. for one, crystal radios only work because AM modulation is so trivial you can do it with a single diode. nearly every phone (cordless or cell) in existence today has far more complex modulations requiring (at a very minimum) an asic to do the tx modulation / rx demodulation; and for cellular signals, UMTS requires descrambling, despreading, decryption, and DECT is fairly complex too, none of which can be done on 3.5 microwatts. sure you can make a... "phone"... that doesn't do these things, but these things exist for a reason: RF is a harsh environment, and without spread spectrum and hopping and all that you cannot get good voice quality (welcome to the era of the walkie-talkie) and without encryption you get no privacy either (again, walkie-talkie).
interesting research project... but the practical limitations means it dead-ends at "research project."
At best it can do some voice communication using electric signals. How anyone would confuse this with a phone, I can't imagine.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The described device is equivalent to a blue tooth headset.
This could be used to make a combadge like device.
says it all
The closest thing to a source in this clickbait article is a crummy YouTube-like video. The other links are just links to tags on that same woefully named "hothardware" site. EditorDavid, don't accept submissions like this.
What's the matter with you? Your Kool-Aid go down (or, more likely up) the wrong pipe?
(You forgot to use your Fox-Bot voice):
Death to CNN! ~bzzt~ Long live the new flesh! ~bzzt~
Don't worry, I got ya covered.
... will use only 2.7uW of power.
http://appleinsider.com/articl...